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On My Mind

Thursday, February 4, 2016

Doodle Day began as a one month challenge back in May of 2013 (you can see the original post announcing the challenge HERE). I was creating a daily doodle and my then 4 year old was carrying her little pink sketchbook to pre-k each day so she could sketch during nap time. On April 29th, 2013, Erin told me, on the way to school, that she wanted to start doodling the same thing I was doodling each day and we should call it Doodle Day May. As I she got out of the car, she said, "and you should blog about it and invite our friends."

Well, I loved the idea so I did go home and blog about it and I did invite our friends. The next morning, there were about 60 people who had commented on the blog or expressed interest that they wanted to doodle with Erin and I and now 34 months later, Doodle Day never stopped. Erin and I still doodle every day and the group has grown to more than 600 people! We have a new theme each month and all doodlers are welcome (well, as long as you keep the doodles family friendly and rated G since we have some pretty young artists in this group).

If you'd like to join Doodle Day, the Facebook group can be found HERE.
Today, we are on day 4 of our February 2016 theme UNLIKELY FRIENDS. The prompts are about creating a quick doodle of pairs of animals that you wouldn't typically see together enjoying each other's company.

Here's a sample of a couple of my doodles this month:

Doodling every day for years has helped me developed my style, play with different media, create characters, and it's just fun.

If you are a grown up or a child, a parent or single, an artist, teacher, media center specialist, or anybody else who enjoys doodling - consider joining the very supportive online community of Doodle Day.

Monday, November 2, 2015

Can you believe Doodle Day has 594 members?? WOW! I love knowing that there are soo many people doodling out there. We started as a 1 month doodle challenge in May 2013 and just kept on doodling. November 2015 marks our 31st consecutive month of doodling every day. If you don't know the way it works, join the Doodle Day group on Facebook, then you click on the file for the month and the list of doodle prompts are listed there. If there are blank spaces after any of the days, doodle members are welcome to add something appropriate to the theme. We have to keep in mind that we have doodlers as young as 4 years old in there so all doodle prompts and doodles are G rated. The prompts are there to inspire and challenge. We all know that it can be stressful to stare at a blank page and not know what to draw so the prompt lists take that stress away. Doodle Day can be used as a daily creative exercise, a warm up for a more difficult art piece you are working on, a relaxation technique, an activity to get the creativity flowing before writing a story or a business proposal or working on homework. Doodling should not take a lot of thought. Put your pencil to the page and see what happens. Try new mediums and drawing techniques. I started playing with a brush pen Doodle Day in 2013 and now that's all I use. I learned how to paint with watercolors in there. I started working with acrylics and canvas there. Doodle Day is an opportunity to create without judgement, without grades, and without the stress of it being a perfect piece for a portfolio or art exhibit. Just create. It is the most supportive creative environment that I know of and I am soo happy that soo many doodlers are there to support my love of being creative every day. If you'd like to join Doodle Day - click on this link and join our doodle community. DOODLE DAY

Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Sorry about the blog hiatus but I've been very busy doodling. : ) Doodle Day is still going strong and we are up to 511 members of the online community. Our theme this month was HAND LETTERING. Personally, I had never sat down and really thought about how to approach hand lettering. Sure, I doodled and played with names and words here and loved doing the Notan designs for Doodle Day last year but I really hadn't worked on composition and how the viewers eye will move around the piece (specifically referring to a lettering piece) until this month. I started a new sketchbook just for Hand Lettering and I'm keeping it positive, motivational, and inspiring. I didn't fill the sketchbook this month but I did average more than one doodle per day and I intend to continue to fill this sketchbook with just hand lettering. Here are my doodles from this month...

If you'd like to join Doodle Day - an online community of doodlers. We have monthly themes and daily doodle prompts. You can post your doodles, get feedback, share your ideas, ask questions, and join a very supportive group. Click on this link to join: DOODLE DAY﻿